Forest School sessions

St George’s now offers a Forest School session to preschool groups on Friday afternoon with Lisa Cobb.

Lisa has been working in a Forest school setting for over 6 years. She has 2 children, a dog called Stella and a very old goldfish called Henry.

Forest School is an inspirational learning process that originated in Scandinavia. The ethos of Forest School is to allow children the time and space to develop skills, interest and understanding through a range of activities which provide practical, hands-on experiences in a natural environment.  Children will be able to take ownership of their own learning by making decisions, taking risk in a safe environment and learning new skills.  Forest School helps to develop self-awareness and responsibility towards others and the wider world.

Each session is structured but the children also have time to use their imagination and do what they want, whether it be playing in the mud kitchen, watering the allotment area or painting a fence…..

The structure of each session will depend on the chosen activity for the week.  For example, in our first session we made bug hotels and the children were very excited to find out what bugs and creatures they will discover living there over the next few weeks.  Lisa showed them images of insects that they might find.  She chatted to the children about what we can and can’t do when the fire is lit and embedded the fire circle rules by asking the children lots of questions about how to be safe near a fire. We then toasted marshmallows and the children loved them. The session ended with a story, and I asked the children what they have enjoyed most about Forest School that day.